Palawan: Puerto Princesa

Departures lounge at El Nido. If anywhere demanded 'Girl from Ipanema' on the PA, it's here.
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Valium or Stugeron? Something to calm me down or something the stop me throwing up. That was this morning's dilemma when faced with the thing I'd been avoiding... a flight on a light aircraft. On the plus side, El Nido airport is the best I've ever been to:thatched, open-sided waiting room with free coffee and bossa nova playing, the gate was an alfresco area of hammocks and benches (who needs pills?), and for check-in, not only the backpack went on the scales, but you and your hand luggage, too. First time I've had to pay excess. Must have been the new beer belly.

'Your 19-seater light aircraft to the slightly larger village down the road is now boarding at Gate 1. Actually, there's only one gate. So it's boarding there.'
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Anywaays, sat directly behind the captain. Could have tickled him or poked him in the ribs, he was that close. If I sat up straight I could see the runway but my posture's shot after all the lounging around. As it happens, take off over the sea was fantastically smooth, the sick-making turbulence I'd read about was non-existant and the whole flight was like a sightseeing tour taking in tiny coral islands, shifting sandbars in the middle of the Sulu Sea and rainforested volcanoes topped off with froths of clouds. Beautiful. We landed in Palawan's capital about 40 minutes later to a brass band... actually for someone on the plane behind but there you go. A far better experience than nine hours on a Jeepney... probably.

Who needs pills when you've got bossa?

Honda Bay - worth conquering a fear of flying, just so you can see it from the air (says Justy, who doesn't have a fear of flying).
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Have spent the afternoon mall-ratting and taking 'mood food' pictures for Ward's freelance writing career (and my new photographic one if I ever get to the end of the 170-page operating manual), including a puffer fish and stingrays on the slab at the fish market, and eleventy-two kinds of rice, including red!

Currently, we are in slightly sombre mood as Justie prepares to pack up his flipflops and bring his farmer's tan back home. But time for one more snorkel tomorrow... he just can't get enough of dem little doods under the sea.

Dined at the 'best restaurant in Palawan' in the evening - KaLui - which is a seafood joint in a sprawling bamboo and nipa hut with polished floorboards and tropical gardens all around. Starters consisted of tiny shellfish in a hot and sour ginger-spiced soup, and for dessert, tropical fruits served up in a coconut shell and sprinkled with crunchy crystals of brown sugar. But it was the main dishes that really stood out... I ordered stingray and rice in coconut cream sauce, Justie had blue marlin and our new travel chum Michael Mick Mike had mackerel cordon bleu n chips. All delicious. And cheaper than cod at only around two pounds each.

We just read yesterday about the busful of child hostages in Manila, which has since ended peacefully. It's been one of the strange things to see here in PP City but there are male and female armed security guards in full uniform, not only at the banks but at Jollibees (Filipino version of McDonald's), Dunkin Donuts (needed some AC!), and the local mall. It's a presence that is both reassuring but slightly reminscent of my trips to Northern Ireland when growing up. The Philippines has been a far more pleasant place to visit than many I've been to elsewhere in Asia but there is also a sense of barely-held control at times... though on some little cove on some tiny island that all seems very far away.

Magandan arau and ciao for now. xxx